


Incindiare

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, like straight up au, tragic chosen one wynonna plus fire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-11-22 16:34:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 9,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11384091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: “No!” A little girl screamed, her hands up, surrendering to a monster she’d been hearing about her whole life. No, not under her bed, her daddy used to tell her about a different kind of monster; the kind that- “No!” She yelled louder, harder, squeakier, and used all of her tiny might,  pressure pushed from deep within her trying to cast the thing out, cast the voice out. But it was swallowing her whole, somehow from the inside, pulling her into a hot, bright light, where it seemed like there just wasn’t room for anything else, in the whole world.“No!” Breathless, Wynonna jerked up in bed, shaking her head clear of the thought that she was still that little girl, screaming from that old monster.





	1. Chapter 1

      _“No!” A little girl screamed, her hands up, surrendering to a monster she’d been hearing about her whole life. No, not under her bed, her daddy used to tell her about a different kind of monster; the kind that- “No!” She yelled louder, harder, squeakier, and used all of her tiny might,  pressure pushed from deep within her trying to cast the thing out, cast the voice out. But it was swallowing her whole, somehow from the inside, pulling her into a hot, bright light, where it seemed like there just wasn’t room for anything else, in the whole world._  
  
    “No!” Breathless, Wynonna jerked up in bed, shaking her head clear of the thought that she was still that little girl, screaming from that old monster. These days, the nightmares came infrequently, but with a kick, and after a sniffle and a shameful brush of her cheeks, Wynonna shook free of the most recent one. Blinking her eyes in the darkness, it’s the same shitty room in her latest shitty institution, not back at the Homestead fire after all. At first, when the government offered her her _choice_ in _facility_ , Wynonna ran her finger through the list and pointed to a random one, knowing even at thirteen that it really didn’t matter where they shipped her off to.   
  
    Maybe because she’d stayed in this one the longest, it was decidedly the most… homey. In the last fourteen years she’d  bounced from institution to institution, usually leaving her _special mark_ on each of them at one point or another. At _Wendell’s_ , where her current bedroom was a little bigger, and her mattress a little less lumpy, she was in her fourteenth month; something of a record without an _incident._ It’s not that Wynonna credits the staff, she doesn’t think they’re doing anything extra, and hey, she was still having the nightmares, but for whatever reason, she’d been managing to control it- to control herself. To beat the monster, even for fourteen whole months.  
  
    “Tonight’s gonna be a bust, isn’t it,” Hissing, she relaxed back into less-lumpy bed, her eyes open for the rest of the night. If she’d known what a big day her next one was going to be, she might’ve tried harder to get more sleep. Well, probably not.  
  


* * *

  
  
    “Okay wait, excuse me,  _ hi, _ ” Wynonna put her hand up, like she was in a classroom; a classroom full of dicks, all talking about her like she wasn’t there or was at least deaf, “you’re relocating me, to you-won’t-tell-me-where, and if I say no, you’re gonna charge me with my father’s fourteen year old murder?” She blinked. A suit nodded at her, and Wynonna rolled her eyes wildly. “Well, I think that sucks, and you guys must really be desperate if you need  _ me _ . Seriously, why’s Men in Black outsourcing to freaks all of a sudden?”    
  
    They hadn’t really spoken to her much after that, there were hushed whispers around her on the way out, but no one spoke to her on purpose. Crossing her arms over her chest, Wynonna put her feet up on the coach bus on the ride away from Wendell’s, swearing if her bed was lumpier at whatever black-site shithole they were moving her to, she wasn’t even gonna try not to have an incident there.    
  
    Black Badge Division. She’d never heard of them, or their apparently rock-and-a-hard-place recruitment tactics. More than once, Wynonna wanted to remind the suits around her that she really didn’t do well when cornered. Didn’t they read her file? Didn’t they know she was responsible for half her family’s deaths?   
  
     That little girl, screaming back at the Homestead fourteen years ago, couldn’t control the monster in her, the fire that leaked from her palms, burning everything around her, and Wynonna’s not sure she can really control the monster yet, either.    
  
    “You know I burned down ten of the last twelve buildings I lived in, right? Not counting my childhood home, which of course, half my family perished in. So, what do you say, wanna be  _ bunkmates? _ ” She said to the suit next to her, the one whose eyes never twitched over to her in fear. The rest of them eyed her nervously, but Him, he didn’t flinch every time she shifted in her coach seat.    
  
    “I’ve seen your file, Earp,” He answered her without answering, in the same tone of voice as her, and as much as she admired it, it pissed her off. Unimpressed, unriled, and unphased.    
  
    “My juvie record’s supposed to be sealed,” She cursed under her breath. “You’ve seen my psych evals?” Asking the same suit, she turned her head to him, trying to catch his name on the dog-tags dangling on his chest.    
  
    “Deputy Marshall Dolls,” He offered his hand for shaking, and held back a smile when Wynonna just glared across the bus seat. “Yes, I’ve seen your full file; I’m your boss.”   
  
    “Oh goody, the new digs come with a boss,” Wynonna huffed. “I don’t really play too well with others, I’m  _ sure _ you don’t need a file for that.”   
  
_ New place, same story _ , Wynonna promised herself she always tried to warn them. Always  _ tried _ to tell them, but did they listen? The one who tried to ‘see through her’ were always the worst; and eventually when Wynonna was Wynonna, they all  _ stopped _ trying.  The cross-border-whatever-deputy-marshall didn’t seem like the kind to stop trying; he was gonna need the full Wynonna setting to go away, she could tell already.    
  
    “You’re reckless, you’re dangerous, and you have problems with authority; but are you really the lone wolf you want to be? We’ll see about that.” Dolls leaned back against the ugly blue plush of the coach seats, and closed his eyes, and Wynonna couldn’t wait for him to wake up so she could  make fun of him for his snoring. Even if he was her ‘boss.’   



	2. Chapter 2

  “You know I haven’t been allowed to hold anything with a sharp edge for ten years,” Wynonna laughed down at the spread of knives on the table. “You try cutting a steak with a blunt, butter knife, or cutting paper with those little pre-school safety scissors; you’d go nuts, too.” Running her fingertip along the edge of a glittering knife about the length of her hand, she didn’t reach for it, yet. Every doubt about herself crept into her throat at once, that maybe all those doctors had been right about her, that she’d earned her safety scissors.    
  
    It was just her and Dolls in the room, though, ( _ Deputy Marshall,  _ he kept reminding her), and from the way even the other suits watched him, Wynonna was pretty sure he could defend himself. Even people on the compound didn’t like him; they listened to him, but Wynonna didn’t think he was a big hit at the company water cooler. Plus, he spent a  _ lot _ of time with her, so she figured his social calendar was a little light.  Mostly, Wynonna didn’t mind Dolls, but if she’d learned anything bouncing from facility to facility, people usually didn’t stick around long. And they especially didn’t stick around  _ her  _ long.   
  
   “If you’re going to be out in the field, you can’t be defenseless,” Dolls prodded, gently, and Wynonna glared.    
  
    “Not exactly  _ defenseless, _ ” She wiggled all ten fingers up at him, “these babies pack a punch, and not just my mean right hook.” Smile fractured for a second, Wynonna perked back up and finally reached for the knife she’d been lingering on.    
  
    “You’re not gonna be using your powers for awhile.” Dolls said, matter-of-factly in a way Wynonna didn’t like, but had to laugh at.    
  
    If it’d been up to her, Wynonna never would’ve had her  _ powers  _ in the first place, let alone use them  _ again.  _   
  
    “You still don’t get how I work, do you?” Squinting down at the next knife, Wynonna ran her thumb along the edge, all the way down to the hilt. “I don’t always get a say when I use my  _ powers.”  _ Wynonna bit back the explanation her daddy gave her when she was seven years old. That the devil touched her as a baby, he’d pressed his finger to her forehead, and left a monster inside her. General disbelief is about all that keeps her from believing in the actual devil, but even twenty years later she couldn’t explain herself in the mirror. She couldn’t explain how many hours she’d spent staring at her own hands, looking for burn scars or  _ proof _ of something.    
  
    “You were a kid.” Dolls didn’t mention the Homestead fire explicitly, but Wynonna kept her eyes from meeting his. “You’ll learn.” He sounded sure, he always sounded sure, and Wynonna was starting to get insulted that he wasn’t taking her scorn and doubt personally enough. “I’ll train you and you’ll learn; until then, pointy objects only, Earp.”   
  
    “Not even a flamethrower?” She asked, working her way down the table of knives. Dolls didn’t laugh, but he knew Wynonna thought she was hysterical.   



	3. Chapter 3

  As it turned out, Wynonna Earp wasn’t as useless  _ in the field  _ as she anticipated being. What the BBD’s specialty was, Wynonna was only half-sure, but she knew that a  _ lot  _ of things they chased were slimy, and had a lot of teeth. Sometimes though, working with Dolls and some of the other suits even approached fun. Black Badge was really big on secrecy, and subtlety, and it’s the lesson Dolls has the hardest time teaching her.    
  
    “Oh, good, we’ve got a runner,” Wynonna pointed into the tunnel, after the thing with the three heads and a metric shit-ton of eyeballs. “Aren’t you gonna say  _ stay here, Earp, let’s wait for back up, _ and then follow me in anyway? Seriously I can’t believe sometimes I have to do  _ both  _ sides of our conversations.”   
  
   “Shh!” He hissed, gun still drawn, flashlight pointing at the old tunnel the  _ thing _ crawled into. Based on the number of heads and eyes, Dolls wasn’t sure what to classify it as just yet. “What’s that noise?”    
  
    A bubbling, hissing noise came from the depths of the tunnel, as Dolls took tentative steps inside. The floor of the tunnel was shiny, black rock, covered in two inches of standing water.   
  
    “Seriously? I  _ just _ got last week’s slime off these boots now th-” Cutting herself off, Wynonna  _ did _ hear the hissing, and while it wasn’t an overt threat, it didn’t sound like a birthday party waiting for her at the end of the tunnel.    
  
    “Shit,” Dolls took another step in, looking to Wynonna. “Amerill demons like to lay eggs in damp, dark places.” He offered, like it was the fun fact of the day. Like she should’ve read it in Demon’s Digest.   
  
   “Who are you, Jane Goodall, you know their  _ likes _ -” Knives still drawn, Wynonna took quicker steps in, passing him in the dim light of the flashlight. “So that noise is what-”   
  
    “Hatching.” Dolls managed to get out, before an apparently fresh Amerill demon leapt in the dark across Wynonna’s chest, knocking her back, into the tunnel’s ground water.    
  
     Slashing and stabbing the thing off of her, Wynonna struggled violently with the thing for about ten seconds, water splashing around them until the small beast eventually stopped moving. Wynonna found herself wet, covered in apparent baby Amerill blood, and even more pissed off than she usually was.    
  
     “Yeah, okay,” Detaching a clip from her belt, Wynonna pulled the tab and let one of her government-issue grenades fly deep into the belly of the tunnel, scrambling to her feet, and pulling Dolls back with her.    
  
    Running from the mouth of the tunnel, Wynonna pulled Dolls away from the opening, just as the boom of her grenade went off, shooting flames and debris from the tunnel.    
  
    “What the-” Dolls stammered, “Who gave you a  _ grenade?” _ __   
__   
    With a shrug that was as guilty as it wasn’t, Wynonna winced, “You see, words like  _ gave _ are… so strong… Check your utility belt, Batman,” She confessed.    
  
    In his weapons bag, Dolls noticed two grenades missing from his supplies.   
  
    “Hand over the other one,” he glared, with his palm outstretched.    
  
    “But what if I  _ need _ it?” Smiling, Wynonna handed the other grenade back to him, slowly. “You’re gonna haveta trust me sometime; it’s been two months, partner.” She clapped him on the shoulder.  _ Sixteen months without an incident _ , Wynonna bit back the thought like it would’ve jinxed her.    
  
    “You’re a good deputy, Earp,” Dolls said, leading her back to their SUV with a half-smile, “but I carry the grenades from now on, got it?”   
  
    “You have a thing about your pineapples, fine,” Eyebrows up, Wynonna held back a laugh she would’ve insisted was at his expense, and got in the SUV to go home.  __ Black Badge HQ, her mind corrected; home was sort of a moving target, she reminded herself.    



	4. Chapter 4

    Bracing herself in the middle of their daily training, Wynonna fended off Dolls’ blows with a precision that hadn’t come easy, and a stopping power she wasn’t sure she really believed in, yet. What Black Badge needed her for, what they were training her for, Wynonna could only try her best to work out. Since her arrival at HQ, once every couple of weeks she’d have visitors, from who she guessed were the mid-level management. Dolls’ bosses who had bosses, usually asking her questions about her training, or her room on the compound. If things were suitable to her, how she was feeling, how she was performing in the field. She’d never once been asked about her ‘powers;’ no one even mentioned them, or her prior history as a suspected murderer and arsonist.    
  
    Thrusting Dolls back with a hard shove, Wynonna bought herself a few seconds in their training fight.   
  
    “I’ve been here for ten weeks, Dolls, getting the demon goo on my jeans, and the viscera out of my hair, and it’s fun and all, beats the hell out of pysch-ward macrame, believe me, but can I ask you something? What do you guys really want with me? What am I supposed to be here for?”    
  
    Blinking, and taking hard breath, Dolls reached for his water and drained the bottle before he looked at her, wordlessly.    
  
    “And don’t say something Dolls-ish like,  _ you’ve been briefed on your role in BBD,  _ okay, you’ve stopped wearing a suit on missions, I’m winning you over, dude, the androids are gonna haveta give up their claim on you.  I just wanna know what they want me for,” Wynonna’s voice got soft, serious in a way she usually kept it from doing.    
  
    Contemplation playing on her partner’s ( _ boss’! _ ) features, Wynonna waited for Dolls to decide what to tell her. She waited for him to pick her, over his Black Badge bosses. Struggle resolved, Dolls stayed true neutral, even as he felt sore to do it.    
  
    “You’re good at what you do,” He answered her in a different tone of voice than his usual one. Neither teasing her, nor ordering her, Dolls couldn’t help but off her a soft, sad smile, “When the time comes, they’re gonna need you to…” He trailed off.    
  
   “Flame on?” Wynonna’s voice went bitter, and she sucked a tooth. “Yeah, well.” She turned from Dolls, running a hand through her hair. Nearly seventeen months, her palms hadn’t given way to chaos or fury or hell, even a little. If Black Badge wanted that to change, they were gonna have a tough time with it.    
  
    “There’s something else,” Dolls’ voice dropped, like a kid with a secret. He waited for her to turn back to him, to meet her eyes. “They…  _ know _ about your family.”   
  
   “They’re dead. And if you go after Waverly,  _ you’re _ dead-”   
  
   “Not Waverly,” Dolls shook his head, inching closer to her. “Your ancestors. Given your family’s history as monster hunters in the Ghost River Triangle area, and your… genetic quirks, BBD thinks you’re a prime candidate to help them tackle the Purgatory problem. I don’t know when they plan on briefing you, but I think it’s supposed to be soon.” Eyes cast down, Dolls didn’t know if he’d be in trouble for this, but the way she was looking at him made any punishment irrelevant.    
  
    “Genetic quirks, huh?” Wynonna mulled, face full of tribulation, chewing on her bottom lip. “In middle school they just used the word ‘freak.’” Sitting on the mat they’d been fighting on, Wynonna patted the spot next to her. “So what’s the problem with Purgatory these days? Inbreeding?”


	5. Chapter 5

     The briefing came nearly a week after Doll's training room confessional. An Agent Lucado, with a super-shiny badge and a too-tight smile barged into Wynonna's BBD home-base, sat across from her in the briefing room, and only withheld about 90% of the important details. 

 

    "You're a probationary deputy, Ms. Earp," Lucado said, "your mission reports are usually half-done and way past their deadlines, and you still seem unclear that it's a requirement of your job that your work remains out of the news headlines. Frankly, Purgatory could make or break your career."

 

    Arms crossed, leaning against her office desk, Wynonna couldn't keep the scoff in her throat,  “Remember the part where I got black-mailed on to your team? Threatening me with firing me isn't exactly-"

 

    Dolls cleared his throat from over Wynonna's shoulder, and tried to communicate something Wynonna pointedly ignored, before continuing. 

 

    "Fine. So. Purgatory, where I used to live, hometown crowd, etc. What big monster-y thing are we shooting in the face there?" Huffing a sigh, Wynonna couldn't push the feeling away that she really didn't like Agent Lucado, and she really didn't want to go back to Purgatory. 

 

     Long before Black Badge, Wynonna had said goodbye to that particular hometown crowd, and she never found herself excessively yearning for a reunion.    
  
      "Have you ever heard the name Bobo del Rey?" Lucado's glare fixed, and Wynonna swore she'd seen more human-looking eyes in the things her and Dolls hunted. 

 

     "Bobo? What- are we chasing an escaped clown or something-"

 

    Slamming her palm flat to the table, Lucado frowned. 

 

    "Bobo del Rey  _ is  _ the Purgatory mission; you are to bring him back here, for questioning in unspeakable crimes against humanity, going back hundreds of years, including..." Lucado let the mystery linger, "The torture and murder of your ancestor, Wyatt Earp." Tight smile employed, Lucado regained her composure, while Wynonna processed. 

 

    Forcing a laugh, she shook her head, "Shit. You guys believe in the curse." She looked to Dolls for confirmation, but his head was down, eyes unreadable as ever. "You think I'm... the way I am," Wynonna braced herself, "to help you chase demons, because my however-many-times-great-grandpa swore some curse on a bunch've demons who killed him." With her chin low, Wynonna nodded to herself. 

  


    "Wyatt Earp had your... capabilities." Agent Lucado fought for Wynonna's focus. "Who knows, a trip to Purgatory might shed some light on why he was able to control them." Accusation never leaving her tone, Lucado stood. "Regarding your ancestral history... our attempts to contact the leading expert on the Ghost River Triangle curse lead us to... your sister, Dr. Earp." Battle for Wynonna's focus over, her head snapped up to attention, pushing herself off the edge of her desk. 

 

    "Waverly? Got a doctorate in..." Wynonna winced. In her own defense, she found all manners of long distance relationships and communications difficult, sisterly ones being no exception.

 

    "Historical and anthropological studies, specifically she has a wealth of knowledge pertaining to centuries of your ancestral line, and all it's abnormalities." Stepping to the door, Lucado turned her attention to Dolls, for the first time all meeting. "Keep your deputy on a short leash," Lucado swept the office door open, "And you both might keep your jobs."

 

    With a subsequent slam, Wynonna and Dolls were alone with the air changed between them; Wynonna still reeling from Dr. Earp, and the impending flight back to Purgatory. Twenty-four hours til take off; was that really enough time to get drunk enough?

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

   "Are you ready?" Even checking her face for signs of distress or discomfort, Dolls knew they'd have to go into the Sheriff's department anyway, and when she just grunted in response, he turned the doorknob to the precinct.    


    Usually, a rendezvous with local beat cops wasn't the Black Badge protocol, but with years of local crime logs on hand, and a good place to set up a satellite BBD shop, Wynonna found herself back in Purgatory's sheriff's office; almost like she never left. 

 

   "Wow, these places don't change, huh?" Wynonna took in the yellow-stained white walls, the same, stale air. "We're definitely back in Kansas, Toto," she said to Dolls, with a sigh. 

 

    "Wynonna!" A screech came from down the hall, before a girl came running. "It's been three years!" Pulled into a hug, Wynonna tensed first, relaxed second, at her baby sister's hug. At least not everyone was disappointed to see her back in Purgatory. Far from the excited child of her memory, the girl that pulled back from Wynonna's hug was an excited young woman, who was definitely her baby sister, Waverly.

 

    "I heard you've been busy..." Wynonna balked, in the awkwardness of re-meeting her sister maybe not everything stayed unchanged in Purgatory. "Doctorate and everything? At least one of us got the brains," Wynonna smiled when Waverly beamed.  "This is Dolls; he's Black Badge's resident robot-babysitter, but he does act human, on occasion." 

 

    "Dr. Earp," Dolls nodded, and shook Waverly's hand, and Wynonna was almost sure her t-shirt was strangling her until she reminded herself to breathe. 

 

   "Sorry-" Wynonna shook her head, laughing at herself, "It's just... world's colliding, you know. Psshhhh..." With her hands, Wynonna mimed a big, mushroom-cloud of an explosion. 

  
    "Relax, Earp," Dolls pressed his hand to the shoulder of Wynonna's leather jacket, "Your sister's our local liaison.” Slowly, Dolls met Wynonna’s eyes, “She won’t be in the field,” he added in a whisper, just for her.    
  
    Beyond the initial awkwardness, Wynonna genuinely missed seeing her sister; even if Wynonna only stayed away to protect Waverly.  _ Protect Waverly _ ; Wynonna’s eyes browsed over the white-boards of information, and the files Waverly had collected on their dead ancestors. Protecting Waverly was never supposed to look like monster hunting for a sketchy sector of the military. Protecting Waverly was never supposed to be coffee in a makeshift office, looking over files about monsters that wanted them dead.    
  
    But, that was what protecting Waverly looked like, and Wynonna sipped her too-bitter coffee from the one Purgatory coffee place, and tried to keep her thoughts focused on the information her baby sister dug up about their family over the last few years.    
  
     “Bobo del Rey, is sort of a shady character, in Purgatory; that’s what the rest of the town thinks, anyway,” Waverly continued, smiling when it looked like Wynonna was finally paying attention. “Really, I think he’s a demon, and something of a sorcerer in the dark magics,  that’s been around since our great-great grandfather’s days. He’s kept himself with the times, disappearing for years and coming back, his fixation with Purgatory stemming from-” Waverly watched Wynonna’s jaw tighten, “the Earp curse.”   
  
    Inhaling a stiff breath, Wynonna rolled her eyes. “The Earp curse was an old folktale daddy told us to scare us,” Wynonna ground out, and when Dolls turned his focus to her, she figured it was time to tell him herself; no more reading it in her files, or her psych evaluations. “Daddy said,” clearing her throat to take on a deeper, more manly and countrified voice, “your ole great-great grandfather, Wyatt Earp, put down monsters, to protect the world from the darkest things in life. The things that are out there that wanna hurt you and kill you, half because of who your great-great-grand daddy was, and half just because. The rotten things that killed Wyatt, he cursed; he cursed ‘em, doomed ‘em to wait around for his special heir to kill them, in retribution.” Stammering for a second, Wynonna found her voice again, “Wyatt Earp made his legend off killing, and promised himself and everyone else that his legacy would hold true.” Rolling her eyes, Wynonna lost her thirst for coffee. “Just because… Just because I bear some  _ striking resemblance,”  _ She looked down at her hands, and then back up, “doesn’t mean I’m the Earp heir, or that the curse is real.  _ Waverly, _ I  _ told  _ you to stay away from this, this is what made-”   
  
      “Mama  _ left _ us, because of Daddy, not the curse.” Waverly’s voice went sharp, strained; a register Wynonna hadn’t heard in years. “God, Wynonna, you’re  _ special _ , you have  _ powers, _ you can change Purgatory, and our family history.” Even with her chin tucked, Waverly looked defiant, and Wynonna made sure to look away.    
  
     “I already changed our family’s history, remember?” Voice dark, Wynonna let the question hang for a few seconds, and then she bolted, running from the Sheriff’s office, just like she’d done when she was thirteen. Heat in her cheeks, she walked out into the Purgatory snow, half about to turn back and hash the whole thing out, and half about to leave Purgatory for good.   
  
_ “Earp,” _ Dolls chased, and where she suddenly got her speed from, he could only guess. “Wait up, come on, Wynonna, hang  _ on _ .” When she stopped, he breathed a sigh of relief that was visible in the Purgatory cold.    
  
    “Do you think the curse is real?” She demanded, facing him before he reached her. Their foot-prints in the snow marked their path back to the Sheriff’s department, like even nature was mocking her.    
  
  Dolls licked his lips, fighting a shiver, “I don’t believe in curses,” he shook his head, “not usually, anyway. But genetics? And demons? I know those are real, Wynonna, and there’s a whole lot of evidence that they’re at play here.” Fingers stretching over her shoulder, every professional fiber in Dolls howled when she pulled herself into his chest. Still for a moment, Dolls looked down at her, her eyes closed against him, like the rest of the world was shut out.   
  
    “So you don’t think me killing Willa was some foretold wisdom of my ancestors? That it was my…” Well, the word  _ destiny _ just sounded so cruel, even to herself. Wynonna kept her eyes closed, and spoke so softly she was almost whispering into his chest, “Five minutes back here, and I already feel like I can  _ feel _ it, Dolls. Coming back for me.”  _ The monster; her part in the curse, her part as the heir, her part in the world,  _ whatever it was, she’d run from it, and it hadn’t liked that. She  _ felt _ it.    
  
    That night, in the Homestead, when her hands started fires that didn’t burn her, and the old home fell down around her ears, she’d heard a voice, a voice coaxing it out of her, a voice pulling her in every direction; all her life, she’s been sure her daddy was right- there was a monster in Purgatory she had to be afraid of.    
  
    “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you,” Dolls said back, and was thrown when Wynonna’s eyes snapped open suddenly.    
  
    “I’m the one that  _ happens  _ to people, remember?” Dark history rehashed, Wynonna couldn’t shake the chill from her chest. Nevertheless, she steeled herself and pulled back from Dolls, already lost in her next thought. “Did Waverly say something about Bobo being a sorcerer?”   
  
    “That little sister of yours is too smart for her own good.” A voice came from behind Wynonna;  _ the voice _ came from behind Wynonna, and the chill in her chest spread. 


	7. Chapter 7

  “Did you hear that?” Wynonna shoved Dolls back, “Get away from me, stay away-”   
  
_ “Wy-non-na…”  _ The voice sing-songed, from her worst nightmares, but no one else stood in the cold with them.    
  
    “Earp, what is that?” Dolls reached for her, trying to calm her visible panic, but she stepped back, away from him.    
  
    “Wynonna Earp,” The voice echoed, a register too dark, and too familiar for Wynonna. “You don’t recognize your old friend, Bobo?”    
  
    In a flash, Bobo del Rey materialized between Wynonna and Dolls, with a wicked smile that inched too close into Wynonna’s comfort zone.    
  
   “Old friend? You were there, that  _ night _ weren’t you?” She tracked the voice to her worst nightmares and memories, and for once, trusted her instincts. Maybe she was remembering Bobo’s voice there that night, because it really had been there.    
  
    “Bobo del Rey. Step away from my Deputy or I’ll shoot,” Dolls aimed his gun, just as Bobo reached a hand for Wynonna’s hair. “I’m Deputy Marshall Dolls-”   
  
    Bobo spun with an unnatural quickness, throwing the gun from Dolls’ hands, “Black Badge Division.” Bobo finished, “I know who you are, Xavier. You still think this is  _ accident _ ?” Looking between Wynonna and Dolls, Bobo outright laughed. “Wyatt Earp was a man afraid of the  _ gifts _ I’d given him.”   
  
_ Waverly’s gonna haveta add that factoid to the Earp history books,  _ Wynonna shook her head.    
  
    “And he had no idea what being  _ ungrateful _ to me, would do to him,” With a cool grin, Bobo rubbed his knuckles against his chin. “He cursed me, alright; of course the curse is  _ real _ ,” He snapped at Wynonna, and held his finger to her lips to silence her protests. Smacking his hand away, she let him continue, already thinking of ways she was going to kill him. “I’ve known to expect you, for generations, Wynonna Earp. Before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye, you were a twinkle in mine, the second daughter of Ward Earp. Another drunken fool, afraid of power because he never had it. Ward and Willa, would’ve stood in your way, my dear.”    
  
    Dolls watched a tear slid down Wynonna’s cheek, as she reached back her hand, landing a hard smack to Bobo’s face. Bobo only laughed, again.    
  
    “You think we can get to the Cliffnotes?” Wynonna asked, “I  _ remember  _ your voice there that night, I remember you scaring me, telling me what I was gonna do before I did it- and that was how you got me to do it. You  _ tricked  _ me,” This time when she reared back to land another slap, Bobo grabbed her wrist.    
  
    Without thinking, Dolls shoved Bobo away from her, and for that, Bobo sent Dolls reeling back, supernaturally freezing him in place.    
  
   “What- what are you doing to Dolls?” Wynonna pulled her knife, her favorite one, and held it out in front of her.    
  
   “To Xavier? Oh, Wynonna Earp.” Bobo sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically. “You should be worried about what I’m gonna to do  _ you _ ,” He smiled, reaching his palm to her forehead, like the devil himself Ward warned of. 


	8. Chapter 8

 "Is violating personal space lesson one in the Idiot's Guide to Villainy?" Wynonna swatted Bobo's hand away- the devil wasn't going to touch her anymore. "Let Dolls go." She didn't beg, but the tremble in her voice didn't make Wynonna feel like she was negotiating from a position of power. 

 

    "Of course," With a flick of his wrist, Bobo released Dolls from his magic. Dolls dropped to his knees, sputtering for breath, and curses to hurl in Bobo's general direction. "Xavier has his part to play in all of this too, naturally," Bobo's chin dropped to a deep nod, almost a bow, as  his attention turned back to Wynonna. "None so significant as the key, though," Bobo winked at Wynonna, and then he was gone as quickly as he came. 

 

     "The key? The key to what?" Wynonna's brows knit together, demanding an answer from the dead air Bobo left. He was gone, but she didn't think he'd stay gone- she wasn't that lucky. "The key?" She looked to Dolls. "Well... you're familiar with a ton of creepy shit and things high on the disturb-o-meter; what's the key?"

 

    Dolls steadied himself, and licked his lips against the cold, "Bobo wants out of the Ghost River Triangle." He sighed, his breath still leaving his mouth in visible little, white puffs of air. 

 

    "And he thinks I'm what- his greyhound bus ticket?" Eyes wide, Wynonna swung hair from her face, cursing Purgatory, and Wyatt Earp, and Bobo del Rey, and Black Badge for dragging her back there. Shiver still up her spine, Wynonna fought the goosebumps Bobo's presence left on her. 

 

    "Let's get back inside, Earp," Wrapping an arm over Wynonna's shoulders, Dolls kept his eyes on the woods behind them. 


	9. Chapter 9

    "The key." Waverly repeated softly, curled over a book whose pages had long been yellowed. "The key..." She looked up at Wynonna standing over her, triumphant. "I found it- I found you." Pointing Wynonna to the corresponding passages, Waverly let the book fall into her hands. 

    With Dolls leaning over her shoulder, Wynonna's black-polished fingernail skimmed down the page that had Waverly squealing.

_ Legend says, that when Sheriff Wyatt Earp perished, he cursed his tormentors and murderers, to long lives of misery and anguish, and promised that one day an heir- an Earp heir- would avenge his ancestry. While only ashes were discovered to confirm the sheriff’s death, several letters of correspondence believed to be Wyatt Earp’s own writings, have only helped the Earp Curse myth persist- writings of a Lead, who brings the Key, where a great battle between good and evil will take place- one that Wyatt Earp says he himself lost, ultimately. While the sheriff’s deeds and misdeeds, have been publicly discussed and touted, his murder was never solved, leaving some to believe in the Earp curse after all.  _ __   
__   
    “And look, here-” Waverly shoved another book into Dolls’ hands, pointing at the latin like it would help him understand. “ _ This _ is the journal of a priest who died in Purgatory in the late 1880’s,  _ probably _ of some now-curable disease, but the journal he kept is all about  _ spirituality _ , and not like, believing in a higher power. He talks about the  _ spiritual _ history of Purgatory- being one of what he calls, ‘an old gate to Hell,’ leftover from when God cast out the devil. Father Virgil talks about how this makes Purgatory, and the Ghost River Triangle, susceptible to the musings of the devil, blah blah, I  _ think _ he means demons, or at least like. Bad vibes.” Shrugging, Waverly took a breath before continuing, “But later on, he talks about having dreams- like, visions, I think- of the Key, who follows the Lead to the Gate, where… well, I’m not sure where the Gate is, or why the Key follows the Lead there, but… I think depending on  _ what _ happens at the  _ where _ …” Waverly trailed off, looking between Dolls and Wynonna.    
  
    “Are they teaching latin in the old high school these days,” Wynonna shook her head. “So, I follow the  _ lead _ , to the  _ gates of hell, _ perform my sacred duty as Earp heir- which is, what? Pyromania? And then we all just stop for ice cream on the drive home?”    
  
    Dolls exhaled a breath; his latin wasn’t as good as Waverly Earp’s, he could admit that, but from what he could read in the journal, he didn’t like what this sounded like.    
  
    “The Black Badge assignment is to take Bobo del Rey back to headquarters,” He reminded them all, hard edge to his voice. “This could just be his way of messing with you, whatever he is- demon, sorcerer-”   
  
    “Something Hell coughed up.” Wynonna let the book close, her feet still propped up on the desk in front of her.    
  
    Eyes glittering over the last of the old, latin passages, Dolls rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, either still fighting the after-effects of whatever trick Bobo had done to him, or something else- a new, ominous, creeping feeling coming over him.  _ The Lead. _ He chewed his lip.  _ The Lead _ would bring  _ the Key _ to a  __ great battle for the soul of Purgatory. If Wynonna was the Key, destined to fight in a battle of good vs. evil in the name of the Earp family, and Bobo promised Dolls had a role in it…   
  
    “I need some air.” Flattening the book against the desk, Dolls stood up too abruptly to escape Wynonna’s curious eyebrow. “I’ll be back in a minute, Earp,” He shrugged off her questioning face, and subsequent pout, and left the Sheriff’s office unsure of where he was going- unsure of what he was thinking.    
  



	10. Chapter 10

        "Dolls? Dolls?" Wynonna called out into the Sheriff's parking lot, after Dolls' had been gone too long. "Seriously, just talk to me, Dolls..." She muttered to herself, dialing his cell phone number, again. When it got to voicemail, again, Wynonna shook her head. "Or, you know. Disappear; there's that option, too."

    Dragging her feet in from the cold, Wynonna slumped down into a hard-backed chair in the office lobby, running her hands down her face and imagining scenarios in which Deputy Marshall Dolls would pay dearly for ditching her in the cop shop. 

    "You look like you could use this more than me," Waverly offered her sister her cup of coffee, too light and too sweet for Wynonna's tastes, but she accepted it anyway. 

    "It's not really like him to storm off," Wynonna ignored the defensiveness in her own voice, only vocalizing half of the internal argument she'd been carrying on. Because it  _ wasn't  _ like Dolls to storm off, but maybe she and Purgatory just got to be too much for him, maybe Bobo's cryptic sideshow paired with old priest's' spirit journals were just a little too far for him. 

    She thought back, to the monsters they'd chased around the world in the last few months. To the jokes he'd sat through, to the threats, to the shit she'd given him in the beginning of everything. In her chest, someplace deep, and heavily guarded, Wynonna held tight to the idea that they’d shared something between them- that the last months of being partners had sort of made them… more-than whatever work relationship they were supposed to have. She tried to think of why this case, why this town, why this monster was any different- why it'd be any different for him. 

   "I think... I think I get it." Waverly smoothed her lips into a line, putting her hand over her sisters.' "So, don't shoot the messenger here, but I think... I think Dolls might be _ the Lead? _ " Voice opened up into a question, Waverly couldn't remember being unsure of so much, until her sister came back to Purgatory. “I mean, with everything you said Bobo said, and everything we found in the texts, it’s just-”   
  
    “ _ Oh _ , shit.” Wynonna’s jaw settled into a face of realization, or.. Almost-realization; of being on the cusp of solving a mystery she’d been having nightmares about for a decade. “There  _ are _ his boot-prints in the snow out there. I figured he paced and then walked off to Shorty’s or something but…” Standing, Wynonna traded her coffee for her knife.    
  
   “Bobo del Rey?” Waverly asked with a wince.    
  
   “I guess I… follow now, right?” Wynonna sighed. 


	11. Chapter 11

    "Okay, I know this may _not_ be what you want to hear, but it might be a good thing that Dolls is the Lead, you know?" Waverly tried to keep her voice sounding less like a question, and more like a statement. Sounding more like a certainty, a fact, and not just like she was clinging to any available shred of positivity, for her and her sister's sakes.

 

    Rapidly blinking, Wynonna scoffed, "Not super looking forward to following my boss into literal Hell, Waves." Dolls the Lead, Wynonna the Key; the Heir. The cursed little girl the world had always promised she'd be; she grit her teeth and hated it, right from the pit of her stomach.

 

    "Your _boss_ ," Waverly looked doubtful, "You know, most people would let their boss walk straight into Hell all by their lonesome." Turning away, Waverly got back to her book business- she had a gateway into Hell to find. Relying on her texts came naturally, but Waverly hoped this time especially that her books about Purgatory's dark and twisted past would come through.

 

    "Fine, so we'll rescue him _despite_ him being my boss; happy?" Wynonna watched her sister comfortably maneuver through Latin, and Old English, and badly-drawn maps, trying to find out where the Lead leads the Key; where Wynonna would have to fight her devil, to save Dolls. Oh, and the world. _No pressure._    

 

      "You’re not gonna let anything happen to Dolls, so you’re gonna save the world, I’m with you on the win-win, I’m just saying it’s probably good that we know who he is, and he’s you know… capable of defending himself. Against, you know, actual demons. And please, like Im supposed to believe that you have no... _extracurricular_ feelings for him. The googly eyes are all work-related?" Waverly didn't dare look up from her texts; she'd perfected multi-tasking at a young age. "Fine, save the love confessional for _after_ we rescue him, guys like that, I think. Cause right now, I've got us a location on a big, ole door to Hell. Literal hell. Is your work like this all the time?" Waverly looked up, with a wince.

 

    "Is yours?" Wynonna took the book, and nodded. "That's the way Dolls' footprints go," She shrugged. "The only thing we don't know for sure, is what the Key actually does; what Bobo's planning once we get to his Hell party." Looking at the map again, Wynonna imagined Dolls, in Hell, waiting for her to come, and probably hoping that she wouldn't. "Can it really be worse than New Years' Eve, 2005, though?"

 

    Strapping her knife to her belt, and getting a grenade from Dolls' bag, Wynonna took off, Waverly in tow, in search of Dolls, and Bobo, and Hell itself. She was sure he could lecture her later about rifling through his stuff, again. _I just have to save his life, first._

 

    "Ready to storm the castle?" She asked, when they came to the map's location; a big seal in the basement of an old church, Wynonna's skin was crawling with the sheer predictability of it all. Prying open one half of the seal, a burst of heat and the smell of death hit them. Wynonna could only see so far down into the darkness, she wasn't sure what they'd be falling into- only that it was for sure a trap.

 

    "Oh yeah," Waverly cocked her shotgun, and followed her sister down the hole in the earth.

 


	12. Chapter 12

    “God, it’s really dark down here,” Waverly whispered, hush tones barely obfuscating just the tinge of fear she felt, in a dark hole looking for Hell.    
  
     “Give it to me again,” Wynonna froze in the dark, putting out her hand to stop Waverly in place. “Remind me you know the codeword.” Feeling more older-protective-sister than she had in a decade, there were a lot of things Wynonna was ready to put on the line for Dolls; Waverly wasn’t one of them.    
  
    “ _ Shitsnacks _ means ‘hit the deck,’ I  _ got _ it,” Waverly pushed past Wynonna in the dark, feeling her way along what felt like a warm, concrete wall; a tunnel. “I hear shitsnacks and I run as fast and as far as I can, just like when we were little; I know.”    
  
    Wynonna couldn’t see for sure, but Waverly’s tone sounded like she’d rolled her eyes.    
  
    “We’re getting close,” Wynonna crept forward, feeling her way; not by touch, but something internal. Something inside her, calling her towards maybe the Lead, or maybe Hell, Wynonna wasn’t sure. She kept her feet moving forward, telling herself that Dolls was waiting, waiting for her to be the good guy, this time. “I just know it.”   
  
    Biting her lip, Waverly wasn’t sure if she should take Wynonna’s new sixth sense as a plus or minus, when they came to stand at the mouth of hell. There was a light, in the pit, and as glad she was to be out of the darkness, Waverly was uneasy that anything natural made light where they were.   
  
    “Glad you could make it,” Bobo appeared, smiling wide, with Dolls behind him, unconscious. “I have something of yours, I believe,” tilting his head back, Bobo barely held back a laugh at the fury in Wynonna’s face. “You know, I didn’t think it’d be this easy, to bring the Key to  _ right _ where I needed you. I expected a lot more fight, a lot like last time.” Bobo licked his lips, savoring a moment he’d waited centuries for. Catching Waverly’s eyes flicking to Wynonna’s, this time Bobo outright laughed. “What, you didn’t think your sister  _ fought _ against it? Against burning half of your family alive? She did, little one; she tried, she tried to save all of you and yet-”   
  
    “Enough.” Wynonna held her knife to Bobo’s throat, playing a stronger hand than she felt she had, “You don’t speak to her, not about the past, not about anything. Let Waverly help Dolls up and out of this actual hellhole, and I’ll kill you quickly.” Breathless, Wynonna hated how the latent heat felt on her skin- how natural it felt, how undisturbing.    
  
    “No you  _ won’t _ ,” Bobo snapped, magicking Wynonna’s knife far and away, with just a flick of his wrist. “You know why? Because you want to  _ know _ where you come from, Wynonna Earp; Earp Heir. You want to know what you mean to the world, why you’re drawn to this place, as I am. You want to know why you belong down here, with  _ me;  _ why you always have.” Gripping his fingers to her cheeks, Bobo was agitated enough to send spit flying, and Wynonna winced, ready to give Waverly the codeword any second, even if they couldn’t help Dolls escape.    
  
    “Tell us,” Waverly interrupted. “Tell  _ us  _ about the Earp curse; we need to know.  _ I  _ need to know.” Voice even-keeled and non-threatening, Waverly was terrified of Bobo, of what he was, of what he might do, but he was right about one thing. He could tell them, about what it meant to be Earps- about what their family meant to the world.    
  
    “Wav-”   
  
    “Little sister wants to know why she isn’t special?” Bobo grinned, smelling an open wound on a family of buried secrets. “I knew Wynonna would be the Earp Heir, and you’d be the historian,” he snapped his head to Waverly, voice going gentler, “Willa and Ward were the first tests. You don’t remember this, but I’d come into your dreams, little Waverly Earp. Willa’s too, though she shut me out. You invited me, though; you were so lonely, looking to play with anyone who showed interest.” Pity rang through Bobo’s voice, and stung both Waverly and Wynonna. “I’d come into your dreams, and I knew it wouldn’t be you; you weren’t the Key I needed. But Wynonna? Wynonna Earp, you always  _ tried _ to shut me out, you always tried to be like Willa- but you weren’t. You weren’t Willa, and you weren’t Waverly, and you were entirely too powerful to be saddled with  _ Ward _ for a father.” Bobo spit, and regained his demonic-barely-there composure.    
  
    “How did you make it start? You  _ made _ -” Wynonna felt her lip tremble, and she caught Dolls’ stirring, with his eyes still closed. “Daddy knew, what I was,” Her chin dropped to her chest, remembering, every painful time Ward tried to explain it to her as a kid. “Daddy knew what kind of monster I was, he tried to tell me all the time. To be careful, that I had to be more like Willa, more ready to shut down that part of me and be good.” Wynonna remembered trying, she remembered trying so hard, and being so afraid.    
  
   “I didn’t make you a monster, Wynonna,  _ God  _ did that,” Bobo gave a short laugh, “I just need your blood, your Earp Heir blood, to let me and all the creatures of Hell loose upon the Earth. It’s your destiny, sweetheart. You followed Dolls here, like it was written, and you'll bring about the end of the world as it is.” He crept closer, in Wynonna’s space, like he’d been in her head all those years ago. “Getting rid of Ward and Willa, making you realize your  _ full _ potential, I just wanted to make sure Wyatt Earp’s family got everything it deserved,” Bobo shrugged.    
  
    Deep within her, Wynonna felt  _ it _ move- the monster, the thing her Daddy taught her to be afraid of, and that Bobo had taught her to use as a weapon, for the first time in nearly a year and a half. Wynonna felt it move inside of her, and it was angry;  _ she  _ was angry. 


	13. Chapter 13

    When Wynonna turned her head to Waverly, silently, she was saying goodbye to her baby sister. Silently, she was apologizing for never being there when Waverly got her braces taken off, for missing out on Waverly growing up, and for… killing half of their family. Silently, Wynonna met her eyes to Waverly’s, and hoped she was communicating all of that, because the monster inside of her was almost out, again. The thing in her, put their by the devil or the curse or sure, even God, wasn't going to stay dormant forever.  
  
    “ _Shitsnacks_ ,” Waverly breathed, because when Wynonna’s eyes met hers, they were glowing a fiery orange, alight with rage and power like Waverly hadn’t ever seen them, except for once. Reaching for her sister, Waverly tried to pull Wynonna back, she tried to pull her sister back from becoming the mess of fire and fear and anger that killed their family, but Wynonna shook her sleeve free from Waverly.   
  
    “Why aren’t you _running?”_   Wynonna asked, sincerely to Waverly, and taunting to Bobo; from the corner of her eye, Wynonna could see Dolls moving, slowly, maybe getting to his feet. He inched behind her in her periphery, and it was so laughingly  _Dolls_ that he thought he could still have her back, even then. She could only hope he would run, too, as she circled Bobo, and heard her little sister flee. _Brains of the family,_ Wynonna felt a tear run down her cheek, as grief both new and old swelled in her.   
  
    “ _Y_ _es_ ,” Bobo hissed through his teeth, excited, “I need you, to open Hell to Earth, and bring the end of my being trapped, the end of my being as cursed as you; give me your hands.” He reached for Wynonna’s wrists, bring his palms to hers. “Combining our powers, we’ll fulfill _both_ our dark destinies.”   
  
    “Wynonna, _no!”_   
  
    Wynonna heard Dolls’ scream behind her, she heard him yell for her to stop, for her to come back to him and forget about Bobo, about the monster, about destinies.   
  
    “ _W_ _ynonna!”_ Dolls called, as frantic as the little girl inside of her, all those years ago. “You _don’t_ have to do what he tells you this time,” He shouted at her back, throwing a glare at a space between her shoulderblades, discouraged when she didn’t turn to him.   
  
    She didn’t turn to look at him, to have him see her like this, she just shouted _“Go!,”_ and hoped for once he would just listen to her. Palm-to-palm with Bobo, the inside of Wynonna that felt at home in Hell, recognized his power. And finally, she recognized her own. There wasn't a monster inside of her, there was only her.


	14. Chapter 14

   "He's right, you know," Wynonna's voice held a darker register when she was on the edge of realizing her powers, again. Hope swelled that Dolls was up, and running, and gone. He didn’t know the codeword, but she knew he was smart, and he knew her history. If Dolls was going to survive her, he was going to have to leave, and Wynonna couldn’t look back, she just hoped he left her behind, this once. "It's different, this time." She pushed Bobo back, feeling the thing inside her shift and twist in confusion and anguish. 

 

    The fire spread; slow at first, fiery embers flowing from her palms, just sparks initially, until steady streams of flames shot forward. It was different this time-- this time Wynonna was going to try not to be afraid, this time she was going to make the thing inside her scare away the devil, and as Bobo stood in front of her, she realized he was either too stupid, or too cocky to recognize the danger in her this time. 

 

    "I'm not the scared little girl you manipulated once, you know." With a fistful of of fire, Wynonna struck him first, before he was ready for her. Standing at the mouth of hell, waiting for her blood to bring the apocalypse, she wasn't sure why he wasn't ready for a fight, until a cold thought came to her. It was because she didn't fight last time, he thought it would be easy again. Bobo's screams threw her momentarily, as his flesh burned from her touch, but his anger quickly recovered as he tried to hit her back. Fire continued to spread, until Wynonna herself was a walking fire; even at a time like fighting for the world, she could barely hold back a joke about how hot she was. 

 

    "There's still the prophecy," Bobo howled, nearly doubled over in pain, "your blood will bring about the apocalypse, and Wynonna Earp, I intend to spill more than a drop, sweetheart," he growled, but Wynonna could barely hear him. 

 

    Her ears were full of sounds other than Bobo; blood pounding in her head, the crackles of her powers, and the lullaby her mother used to sing to her and her sisters when they were young. The soft song settled over the scene, and Wynonna shook her head.

 

    Her battle turned internal, with her anger and grief folded in on herself, Wynonna could barely breath, her mother's voice still serenely, calming singing like she was still a little kid. 

 

    Body fully engulfed in flames that didn't burn her, in a light that didn't blind her, Wynonna remembered that feeling; she remembered it was familiar. She remembered waking up after it last time, finding her childhood home turned to ash, and she remembered being ushered away by Sheriff Neadley to give a full statement. She remembered waking up to her father and sister dead, and she remembered it was her fault; the fire was her fault. Her's and Bobo's.

 

    Pressure that pushed on her chest, and a slight feeling of tingling warmth spread over her body, as guilt and grief won out, finally thrusting loose an uncontrollable blast, flames that turned blue with power and heat poured out from her palms. 

 

    For long seconds, maybe longer, Wynonna couldn't tell-- all she saw was the blue fire, coming from inside her, from that monster within, until someone shook her, and shook her again.

  
         "Earp," a voice called, desperately, "Wynonna!" 

 

    Dolls had watched, as the blast of her powers, Wynonna Earp's true fire and fury unleashed itself onto Bobo del Rey, eviscerating him out of existence. The world wouldn't miss Bobo del Rey, Dolls was completely sure of that, but Bobo being swallowed entirely by flames didn't stop Wynonna. Fire came from her still, a steady stream of enveloping bright blue, even covered Dolls. More like water to him than flame, Dolls strode through her powers, strode through to its source.

 

     Tears streamed down her cheeks, he could see that as he inched closer, still vying for her attention, still trying to call her back from the brink. She stood straight, her palms splayed up, and to anyone else she would've looked like she was praying, but Dolls was confident Wynonna stopped believing in God a long time ago. 

 

    At a loss, Dolls put his hands to her shoulders, touching her through the flames; she was hot, warm to the touch even for him, but her skin felt cool still, underneath a layer of steady blue fire. 

 

    Looking into her eyes didn't afford him much comfort; they were glassy, filled with tears, and glowing like the rest of her. Desperately, Dolls did the only thing he couldn't stop himself from doing. Softly, he cupped her chin in his hands, brought forward her chin, and kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> honestly i wrote most of this thing in one shot, but i'll try to edit it as i type it up so it doesn't feel too rushed


End file.
